By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

FASANO, ITALY (Worthy News) – U.S. President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the Group of Seven (G7) western economies agreed to give an extra $50 billion in aid to war-torn Ukraine using frozen Russian state assets as fighting continues on the battlefields.

Claiming “democracies can deliver,” Biden spoke at the start of the G7 summit in Borgo Egnazia, a luxury resort and spa in the southern town of Fasano, in a region plaques by mafia violence.

As he met Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelenskyy, Biden also announced the two countries had signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement, ending 12 months of complex negotiations.

“We are putting our money to work for Ukraine and giving another reminder to Putin that we are not backing down,” Biden said at a joint press conference with the Ukrainian leader.

Biden added that arrangements were being made to provide Ukraine with five Patriot missile defense systems: “Everything we have is going to Ukraine until its needs are met.”

But he ruled out U.S. weapons being used to strike deeper into Russia beyond the weapons bases being used to attack the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. “In terms of longer range of weapons into the interior of Russia, we are not changing our positions,” he said.

Despite those limitations, Zelenskyy called it the “strongest agreement” since his country’s independence in 1991. “Today is a truly historic day,” he stressed.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Ukraine is among the critical issues discussed at the G7 summit, which will also focus on the spread of artificial intelligence and Africa issues, especially Italy’s concern about uncontrolled migration to Europe from the continent.

Perennial issues such as climate change and China also will be discussed, according to sources familiar with the talks.

The June 13-15 gathering follows the European Parliament elections, which saw a surge in support for the far right, including in G7 member states France and Germany.

Yet while the charming G7 host, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, leads a perceived far-right party, analysts say she continues to hew to the center, particularly on foreign policy, amid Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

The heads of the G7 countries, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain, and the United States, also meet other leaders ranging from Pope Francis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the European Union’s leadership.

Several leaders had one reality in common: they may taste one of their last tax-funded luxurious dinners and sleepovers due to political troubles at home: Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisted other leaders were not snubbing him after his first day at the G7 summit ended without any bilateral meetings after an awkward encounter with Giorgia Meloni.

After the Italian prime minister embraced and kissed her “dear friend” she asked him if he is okay as polls show his Conservative Party far behind in the polls ahead of upcoming elections.

SITTING DOWN

“We’ve been here half a day already and I sat down with a bunch of people I need to in the margins. That’s kind of how these things work,” Sunak told reporters separately.

“So I’ve already sat down with [French President] Emmanuel [Macron], spoken to [German Chancellor] Olaf [Scholz] about a bunch of things.”

The prime minister is far from the only G7 leader facing domestic political woes: Macron has called a snap parliamentary election after his party performed poorly in the EU elections in France, which saw a surge in support for the far-right National Rally party.

Similarly, in Germany the EU elections resulted in a strong showing for the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

All is not well with Biden either who faces a tough re-election battle in November, with polls suggesting he is behind or neck-and-neck Donald Trump.

That’s not all. The personal ratings of the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, are languishing.

Organizing the G7 summit wasn’t easy either amid mafia security concerns.

CRIMINAL GROUPS

While Meloni prepared for the G7 leaders’ meeting, local anti-mafia investigators were homing in on three mafia-style criminal groups operating around the summit venue.

The groups are offshoots of the Sacra Corona criminal syndicate, centered around the city of Foggia and made up of crime families who group together in clans, according to investigators.

Unlike the better-known Cosa Nostra in Sicily, the Camorra in Naples and the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria, the Puglia groups work within Italy and the Balkans, said DIGOS (Divisione Investigazioni Generali e Operazioni Speciali), Italy’s top anti-terrorism and anti-mafia unit.

Based in and around the coastal cities of Bari and Brindisi – essentially exactly where world’s most powerful leaders will be meeting the groups carried out daylight attacks such as armed car-jackings.

There have been several high-profile vendetta murders among the clans in recent months, and several maimings, including knee-cappings, local media reported.

That’s not all. A briefcase was found abandoned at a train station near Bari connected to bottles of liquid and a cellphone in March. Since then, almost daily bomb threats have been received.

There have also been armed raids by criminal gangs on villas close to the summit venue. That’s why the Interior Ministry suggested deploying the military to wrestle back control of the region “for the good of the country.”

Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.

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